Month: January 2013

A team of engineering undergraduates designed and built a one-fifth-scale model of an amphibious vehicle that competed successfully in a national competition sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency held in mid-January. Read More

Vanderbilt University has partnered with GE Global Research in Niskayuna, N.Y., the technology development arm of the General Electric Company, to better define — at the cellular level — how colon tumors form and develop. Read More

ResearchMatch, a national on-line volunteer recruitment service hosted by Vanderbilt University, has launched a sub-registry for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to increase the participation of children and adults with autism in clinical research studies. Read More

On Jan. 15, an information systems glitch rendered Vanderbilt Outpatient Orders Management, or VOOM, temporarily unavailable for some users. Shubhada Jagasia, M.D., MMHC, medical director of the Eskind Diabetes Clinic, was among clinicians who suddenly had to return to using paper forms to order clinical labs, radiology and other diagnostic tests. Read More

In a wide-ranging lecture that moved from plants to nematode worms to human leukemia, Nobel laureate Andrew Fire, Ph.D., outlined his vision for a genomics-based understanding of how organisms respond to novel information. Read More

More than 1,200 underserved and disadvantaged people in Nashville will gain access to high-quality primary care thanks to a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Division of Nursing grant recently awarded to the Clinic at Mercury Courts. Read More

Michelle Browning never imagined her nursing skills would save the life of her youngest child. But without her natural instinct to begin CPR her daughter, 9-year-old Lexi, may not have survived after her heart suddenly stopped. Read More

Nearly every week since 1988, cancer patients and families visiting Vanderbilt University Medical Center have been able to count on a comforting routine — at least one morning per week they are greeted by the same smiling volunteer who dispenses a dose of friendship along with coffee, snacks and advice about how to navigate the sprawling Medical Center campus. Read More

The kidney can mediate its own repair through proliferation of resident immune system cells. Read More

A new study comparing outcomes among prostate cancer patients treated with surgery versus radiotherapy found differences in urinary, bowel and sexual function after short-term follow-up, but those differences were no longer significant 15 years after initial treatment. Read More

Vanderbilt historian Thomas Schwartz can comment on how John Kerry will likely approach his new job as secretary of state. Read More

Congress and President Obama are taking up the debate over comprehensive immigration reform yet again. Vanderbilt has a diverse array of experts researching various aspects of the immigration debate. Read More

Research by Vanderbilt political science professor Alan Wiseman and his coauthors find women in Congress in the minority party are more effective than their male counterparts when it comes to introducing and negotiating bills, spurring action on those bills, and ultimately seeing them become law. Read More

Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, assistant professor of astronomy, continues her discussion of black holes in the second part of this interview for Red Orbit. Read More

Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, assistant professor of astronomy, talks about what sets black holes apart from other objects in the universe and explains how the laws of space, time and gravity bend and even break down to create the most destructive force in the cosmos. Read More

Michael Petracek, M.D., has been named interim chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Cardiac Surgery. Read More

Within StarPanel, the medical records system used at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, patient care team members each have an electronic message “basket,” making it simple to store messages and link them to medical records. Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Lee Limbird, Ph.D., has received one of pharmacology’s highest honors — the 2013 Julius Axelrod Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Read More

Vanderbilt is expanding its role in the future treatment of pediatric hydrocephalus by recruiting Chevis Shannon, MBA, MPH, Dr.PH., to serve as director of the Vanderbilt Pediatric Neurosurgery Clinical Research Initiative. Read More

F. Peter (Fred) Guengerich, Ph.D., Stanford Moore Professor of Biochemistry, is the 2013 recipient of the Society of Toxicology Merit Award in recognition of distinguished achievements to toxicology throughout his career. Read More